I have the same type of laptop and this bothered me too so I looked through the user guide and found out you can actually change this without having to use a keyboard emulator or anything. I know this is well after you posted the initial problem, but I figure if someone else ends up here I can help them. Keep in mind this is for the HP pavilion dv6, it might not work for other laptops and even some of the different dv6's work differently here.
In order to change this first your gonna have to restart your computer. you might want to write off these instructions if you don't think you can remember.
1) restart your computer
2) the first screen that comes up should be a black screen. when the words "press esc to..." show up press the esc button. for my particular model I had to quickly hit esc twice, so if you don't end up in the intended area the first time then you should re-restart your computer and try that.
3) there should be a screen with four or so of the "f" keys and what menus they open. hit f10 for the BIOS menu.
4) you should be in a white and blue menu. you can use the left and right arrow keys to cycle through pages and the up and down ones to cycle through options. cycle through the pages until you find one that has a setting to do with "action keys". Hit enter to select this and then disable it.
5) hit f10 to exit and save your changes.
If you've done everything right, the way your "f" keys work should now be flipped. Now, if your playing a game, you wont have to hit the "fn" key in order to access the controls, and in order to change your brightness or volume you will have to hold it. Hope this helped =D
